Hardness-adjustable platform for supporting conveyor belt of treadmill

ABSTRACT

A hardness adjustable platform for supporting a conveyor belt of a treadmill includes a platform body having internal spaces, and a plurality of elastic fillers moveably and respectively disposed in the internal spaces of the platform body for providing a cushion effect. The fillers are moveable relative to the platform body by an external force and divide the platform body into first and second regions having different hardness. As a result, the runner who uses the treadmill equipped with the aforesaid platform may adjust the positions of the fillers according to his/her physical condition and running speed to change the hardness distribution of the platform so as to enhance his/her running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to parts of a treadmill, and more particularly, to a platform for supporting a conveyor belt of the treadmill, which is capable of adjusting its hardness.

2. Description of the Related Art

Running is one of the popular exercises around the world. Nowadays, many people use treadmills to do exercise for body fitness. One of the advantages of using treadmill to do exercise is that user can do a running exercise while staying in one place without being affected by weather and/or terrain. In addition, when the treadmill is in use, it can provide a certain cushion effect to reduce the counterforce exerting back to user's foot stepping on a plane so as to protect the user's knee joint.

Generally, the cushion effect provided by the conventional treadmills is achieved by using a flexible running platform to absorb the impact and vibration generated by running. It is known that the hardness of the platform will affect the running efficiency and the runner's comfort. Specifically speaking, if the platform that supports the conveyor belt of the treadmill is softer, the runner may feel more comfortable whiling running; however, the running speed may be adversely affected by the increase of the contact time of the foot with the conveyor belt supported by the platform. On the contrary, if the platform is too hard, the runner's knee joint intends to get hurt. Usually, the hardness of the platform of the conventional treadmill is set in a fixed level according to the designer's subjective feeling and experience, which is not adjustable subject to the user's need and experience. Under this circumstance, the conventional platform having a fixed hardness may cause a user to feel uncomfortable or get an exercise injury if the user continuously runs on the treadmill equipped with the aforesaid platform for a long period of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention has been accomplished in view of the above-noted circumstances. It is therefore one objective of the present invention to provide a platform for supporting a conveyor belt of a treadmill, which has an adjustable hardness that can be adjusted by the runner subject to the runner's physical condition and running speed so as to enhance the running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury.

To achieve the above-mentioned objective, the platform provided by the present invention comprises a platform body and at least one filler moveably disposed in at least one internal space of the platform body. By means of changing the position of the filler relative to the platform body, the platform body can provide size-changeable first and second regions having different hardness; wherein the first region of the platform body is not distributed with the filler and the second region is distributed with the filler, such that the first region has a relative smaller hardness and the second region has a relatively greater hardness so as to meet user's various requirements. By means of the hardness adjustable feature provided at different regions of the platform body, the runner who uses the treadmill equipped with the platform of the present invention may enhance his/her running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the platform body comprises a wooden plate, a reinforcement plate above the wooden plate, and a shock-absorbing plate sandwiched between the wooden plate and the reinforcement plate to form the internal space between the shock-absorbing plate and the wooden plate.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a partially exploded view of a platform according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the platform of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the platform of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the wooden plate is removed;

FIG. 4 is a partially exploded view of a platform according to a second preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the platform of the second preferred embodiment of the present invention, wherein the wooden plate is removed;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a platform according to a third preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a partially exploded view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is another perspective view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention viewing from a bottom angle;

FIG. 9 is a transversely cross-sectional view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a longitudinally cross-sectional view of the platform of the third preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is similar to FIG. 10, but showing that the position of the filler is changed;

FIG. 12 is a transversely cross-sectional view of a platform according to a fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 13 is a longitudinally cross-sectional view of the platform of the fourth preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As shown in FIG. 1, a platform 10, which is provided according to a first preferred embodiment of the present invention for being used in a treadmill (not shown in the drawings) to support a conveyor belt (not shown), comprises a platform body 20 and a plurality of fillers 30.

The platform body 20 comprises a wooden plate 22, a reinforcement plate 24 located above the wooden plate 22 for enhancing the structural strength of the platform body 20, and a shock-absorbing plate 26 sandwichedly mounted between the wooden plate 22 and the reinforcement plate 24 for absorbing the impact force generated by runner's steps. The shock-absorbing plate 26 has a plate body 262 and a plurality of cushions 264 arranged on the plate body 262 in matrix in rows and columns. Each cushion 264 protrudes from a surface of the plate body 262 towards the wooden plate 22 and stops against the wooden plate 22, such that the plate body 262 of the shock-absorbing plate 26, adjacent two rows of the cushions 264 of the shock-absorbing plate 26 and the wooden plate 22 combinedly define an internal space 28, as shown in FIG. 2.

Each filler 30 is made of rubber and has a circle, rectangular or polygonal cross section. Preferably, the filler 30 has a circle cross section. Each filler 30 is inserted through an end of the platform body 20 into one internal space 28 of the platform body 20, such that the fillers 30 are arranged side by side along a transverse direction of the platform body 20 in the internal spaces 28 respectively and can be forced by an external force to move relative to the platform body 20 along a longitudinal direction of the platform body 20, as shown in FIG. 3. Because of the installation of the fillers 30, the platform body 20 can be divided into a first region A1 without distribution with the fillers 30 and a second region A 2 with the fillers 30, such that the first region A1 will have a hardness smaller than that of the second region A2. As a result, by means of manually adjusting the positions of the fillers 30 to increase or decrease the lengths of the fillers 30 that extend into the internal spaces 28, the sizes of the first and second regions A1 and A2 can be relatively adjusted to meet various requirements of different users so as to enhance the running efficiency and reduce the risk of exercise injury.

It is to be mentioned that the platform body 20 is not limited to a triple-layer structure, but also a single-layer or double-layer structure. In addition, the amount of the internal spaces 28 is not limited to the above-disclosed embodiment. One or more internal spaces 28 can be used in the present invention to receive the fillers 30. Further, the way of arranging the fillers 30 is also not limited to the above-disclosed embodiment. For example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the fillers 30 are inserted through a lateral side of the platform body 20 into the internal spaces 28 of the platform body 20 respectively, such that the fillers 30 are arranged side by side along the longitudinal direction of the platform body 20 and can be forced by an external force to move relative to the platform body 20 along the transverse direction of the platform body 20. In this way, the positions of the fillers 30 can also be manually adjusted by the user to achieve the objective of the present invention.

On the other hand, in order to conveniently adjust the positions of the fillers 30, an automatic adjustor 40 for the platform 10 is further provided in the following third preferred embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the adjustor 40 comprises a drive 50, a moveable bracket 60, two roller sets 70 and a plurality of lines 80. In order to install the adjustor 40, each of the first sides, namely the long sides of the wooden plate 22 is provided with a downwardly extending protrusion 221 having a through hole 223 and two guide slots 225 spacedly located at two opposite sides of the through holes 223 respectively.

The drive 50 comprises a motor 52, a driving shaft 54 and a pinion 56. The driving shaft 54 is connected with the motor 52 and inserted through the through holes 223 of the protrusions 221 of the wooden plate 22, such that the driving shaft 54 can be driven by the motor 52 to rotate. The pinion 56 is fixedly sleeved onto the driving shaft 54; therefore, the pinion 56 is rotatable along with the driving shaft 54.

The moveable bracket 60 is disposed beneath the wooden plate 22, including two first sides 62 and two second sides 64. The first sides 62 correspond in location to the downwardly extending protrusions 221 of the wooden plate 22 respectively, and each have an elongated through hole 622 through which the driving shaft 54 of the drive 50 passes, and two guide blocks 624 spacedly located at two opposite sides of the elongated though hole 622 and slidable disposed inside the guide slots 225 of the wooden plate 22 respectively. Between the two second sides 64 of the moveable bracket 60 a rack 66 that is engaged with the pinion 56 is provided, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. Further, one of the second sides 64 of the moveable bracket 60 is connected with a first end of each of the lines 80 and the other one of the second sides 64 is connected with a first end of each of the fillers 30. Further more, the second end of each line 80 is connected with the associated second end of the filler 30.

The two roller sets 70 are mounted at two ends of the wooden plate 22 and each provided with two roller supports 72 and a roller 74. Each roller support 72 is mounted at the bottom side of the wooden plate 22 for being rotatably mounted with one of the two ends of the roller 74. The fillers 30 run over one of the rollers 74 and the lines 80 run over the other one of the rollers 74.

When the adjustor starts, the driving shaft 54, which is driven by the motor 52 to rotate, will drive the pinion 56 to rotate, which in turn will drive through the engagement of the pinion 56 and the rack 66 the moveable bracket 60 to move along the longitudinal direction of the platform body 20 so as to change distribution of the first and second regions A1 and A2. Specifically speaking, when the moveable bracket 60 is moved towards the direction indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 10, the moveable bracket 60 will pull the fillers 30 to move out of the platform body 20 to reduce the lengths of the fillers 30 staying inside the platform body 20, such that the area of the first region A1 increases and in the meantime the area of the second region A2 decreases. On the contrary, when the moveable bracket 60 is moved towards the direction indicated by the arrow shown in FIG. 11, through the lines 80 the moveable bracket 60 will pull the fillers 30 to move deep inside the platform body 20 to increase the lengths of the fillers 30 staying inside the platform body 20, such that the area of the first region A1 decreases and the area of the second region A2 increases. Therefore, the user can use the adjustor 40 to automatically and conveniently adjust the area distribution of the first and second regions A1 and A2 subject to his/her physical condition and running speed.

In addition, in order to prevent a runner to feel a sudden change of the hardness at the junction between the first and second regions A1 and A2, each filler 32 provided by a fourth embodiment of the present invention shown in FIGS. 12 and 13 has a variable cross-sectional area, which is gradually increased from an end of the filler 32 toward the other end of the filler 32 remote from the first region A1, such that the filler 30 will gradually fill up the internal space 28 along a direction away from the first area A1, and an area of the second region A2 that is closer to the first region A1 will have a hardness less than that of an area of the second region A2 that is farther from the first region A1. That is to say, the hardness distribution of the second region A2 will vary subject to the variation of the cross-sectional area of the fillers 32 and the runner may feel a smooth hardness change when stepping on the junction between the first and second regions A1 and A2. Further, it will be appreciated that the cross section of the filler 32 is not limited to a circle shape, but a rectangular, trapezoidal or polygonal shape as long as the filler 30 can be slidably fitted inside the internal space formed by the cushions 264.

The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A hardness-adjustable platform for supporting a conveyor belt of a treadmill, the hardness-adjustable platform comprising: a platform body having at least one internal space; and at least one filler moveably disposed in the at least one internal space of the platform body to define the platform body a first region without the at least one filler and a second region with the at least one filler, such that the first region has a hardness smaller than that of the second region.
 2. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 1, comprising a plurality of said fillers disposed side by side along a longitudinal direction of the platform body in the at least one internal space and moveable relative to the platform body along a transverse direction of the platform body.
 3. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 1, comprising a plurality of said fillers disposed side by side along a transverse direction of the platform body in the at least one internal space and moveable relative to the platform body along a longitudinal direction of the platform body.
 4. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein the platform body comprises a wooden plate, a reinforcement plate above the wooden plate, and a shock-absorbing plate sandwiched between the wooden plate and the reinforcement plate to form the at least one internal space between the shock-absorbing plate and the wooden plate.
 5. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 4, wherein the shock-absorbing plate comprises a plate body and a plurality of cushions protruding from the plate body in a matrix in rows and columns and stopping against the wooden plate, such that the plate body of the shock-absorbing plate, adjacent two of the rows of the cushions and the wooden plate combinedly define one said internal space.
 6. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 5, comprising a plurality of said fillers and an adjustor, the adjustor comprising: a drive mounted on the wooden plate; a moveable bracket located beneath the wooden plate and connected with the drive in a way that the moveable bracket is drivenable by the drive to move along a longitudinal direction of the platform body; two roller sets respectively mounted at two ends of the wooden plate and each provided with a roller; and a plurality of lines running over one of the rollers and each having a first end connected with the moveable bracket, and a second end connected with one of the fillers; wherein each of the fillers runs over the other one of the roller and is connected at a first end thereof with the moveable bracket.
 7. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 6, wherein each of the roller sets comprises two roller supports each mounted on the wooden plate for being rotatably mounted with an end of the roller.
 8. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 6, wherein the drive comprises a pinion and the moveable bracket comprises a rack engaged with the pinion.
 9. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 8, wherein the wooden plate comprises two sides each provided with a downwardly extending protrusion; the moveable bracket comprises two first sides corresponding to the downwardly extending protrusions respectively, and two second sides, one of which is connected with the first ends of the lines and the other is connected with the first ends of the fillers; the rack is disposed between the two second sides of the moveable bracket; the drive comprises a motor and a driving shaft connected with the motor and rotatably extending through the downwardly extending protrusions and the two first sides of the moveable bracket; the pinion is fixedly sleeved onto the driving shaft.
 10. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 9, wherein the two first sides of the moveable bracket each have an elongated through hole through which the driving shaft passes.
 11. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 9, wherein each said downwardly extending protrusion has a guide slot and each said first side of the moveable bracket has a guide block slidably disposed inside the guide slot.
 12. The hardness-adjustable platform as claimed in claim 1, wherein an area of a cross section of the filler is gradually increased from an end of the filler toward the other end of the filler. 